My thick post of the week...

Fitting a Givi top box mounting plate - easy or not? Does it require any
sort of drilling?

Discovered *none* of my Oxford soft luggag will fit on the V-Strom -
considering it's got a great big rack at the back and a huge seat to say
this was surprising would be an understatement.

Some of the language uttered as the bungee went ping (yet again), taking
chunks out of my finger (yet again) as it went is probably also best
understated.

 

If you're fitting a Givi top box, then you may as well go the whole way
and stick a Wingrack on there - you _will_ run out of top-box space at
some point and wish you could fit panniers.

Took me about 1/2 hour to fit the full kit to the VFR.

 

124 litres total capacity here.

 

****.

 

The V-Strom has a factory fitted rack on the back - the Givi mount goes on
top of that rack.

If I wanted to add panniers, they sell a seperate mounting frame for these.

They don't make a wing rack for it, and even if they did it would look very
very silly

BTW, If I wanted 124l of space, I'd take the car!

 

Ahhh, yeah, your SO doesn't do bikes, does she?

 

Fit panniers instead.

 

Bear says...

Agreed. The Nonfango hard luggage I had on the second ZZR11 really
fucked the handling up, even when empty. That's why I sold it and stuck
with Oxford Sports luggage.

 

How did it manage to **** up the handling when empty? - a Wingrack isn't
exactly heavy, and I can't see it contributing to aerodynamic drag to a
significant extent.

The TRX, 2-up, with throwovers and a large top-box at an indicated
140mph was 'interesting' to say the least.

 

Hard ones I presume you mean?

Cause the soft ones don't seem to bloody well fit either!

I'm sure i'm doing something thick and missing the obvious but I really
reached the end of my tether (pardon the pun) with it this evening.

I may revisit it tomorrow - or consider getting some more appropriate length
bungees.

 

SteveH says...

Maybe because I ride in a more enthusiastic manner than yourself, and
having all that weight and massive flat panelwork sitting behind the
rear wheel spindle did **** all for the handling except **** it up. It
was positively lethal in sidewinds, which is pretty much all you get on
my old regular trip to Glasgow and back.

 

Bear emerged from their own little world to say

I sold my VFR750 in 1996. I removed the Wingrack to ride it 45 miles to
swap bikes. It felt like a totally different bike riding through the Forest
of Dean to Bristol. I think I should have done it much earlier as I may
have kept the bike longer.

Since then I've never bothered with hard panniers.

 

Mathematically it doesn't make sense..... however, if you're riding with
empty panniers I can see how that might bugger things up.

 

SteveH says...

So you have never heard of 'Centre of Gravity' then? I failed maths O
level, but even I can understand why loading up a bike with extra
weight that high and that far back is not a good thing. Then there's
the matter of the screwed up aerodynamics. I think you'll find this is
a simple physics matter, not exactly maths.

 

dwb emerged from their own little world to say

On the GS you lose the grabrail as the mounting plate bolts on in its
place

Simple 2 bolt job

On the Vstrom you have grab handles on either side so it has to be
different. Whatever system they use you will still only have 2 bolts
holding the top plate on. There may be a small plate to fit under the
existing rack or you may be supplied with some longer bolts to go into
the standard threads.

Whatever the system it will be simple. I've fitted a full pannier system
to 2 bikes and a Monorack to 2 bikes. On each occasion the process was
straightforward.

 

But a Wingrack is made out of a relatively lightweight alloy - a 12 pack
of beer would weigh more. It's hardly mounted 'high up', given that it
more or less follows the contours of the bodywork.

Aerodynamics shouldn't be an issue as a rack doesn't stick out that much
and presents a very small frontal area to the air - a change of jacket
would have more of an effect on aerodynamics.

In conclusion, it's all in the mind.

 

Yes. Seriously, top boxes, especially these giant ones they seem to
peddle today, put the weight too high up, to far back, and too far
behind the rear wheel spindle.

Panniers are pricier, but if you'd ever experienced a full-blown
three-figure speed wobble that was down to a bloody topbox, you'd think
the same.

I know I've got a topbox on the 400 Four, but it's a very small one.

 

Nah.

The amount of force generated by a throwover pannier, in these
circumstances, is very small.

 

A rack on its own will make very little difference. It's the load, or
structure, added to it that will.

 

*ding*

And that's my point.

OK, so a Wingrack isn't exactly pleasing on the eye, but I wouldn't have
a bike without one now.